Repentance (part 2) Godly Repentance Illustrated

In Genesis 6 we have a record of God 'repenting.' I know that God is immutable and that He really does not change His mind about thing, nor is He taken by surprises about anything (He is Omniscient). When the Bible says that God repented, it is that God is simply condescending to us so that we may understand Him. In all reality God is simply acting consistantly with His reaction towards men. Genesis 6 is a great account that we can use to see exactly what repentance is. Since God is the one 'repenting,' we then can see what 'Godly repentance' truly is or in other words what true repentance really is.

1. The object from which repentance is directed towards is that of sin. When someone asks me, "what am I to repent of?" I answer "you must repent of sin." - "And God saw the wickedness of man was great...and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (v.5). As a result of seeing the sinfulness of man the Bible goes on to say: "it repented the LORD that He hath made man on the earth..." (v.6). And so true repentance deals with sin.

2. Repentance also affects an individuals emotion: "...it grieved Him at His heart. (v.6b) still speaking about God. In essence God was emotionally affected by man's sinfulness.

3. Repentance involves volition: "And the LORD said, I will destroy man..." (v.7a). And we know that God did follow through with what He determined to do sparing only Noah and his family.

Godly repentance therefore is a conviction with regards to the nature of sin, which in turn affects a person's emotional and volitional faculties resulting in a determination to rectify the wrong.

Post Script: This thread is a continuation of a previous post.